Information is Beautiful.

But it’s not always right.

The problem with the Internet is anybody can post information and if it’s outrageous enough it’ll be forwarded ad infinitum without fact-checking, without scrutiny, and a plethora of people will believe it. Used to be information was funneled through responsible media and after being scrubbed of falsehood it was disseminated to the public. Today even the mainstream is untrustworthy…can you say FAIR AND BALANCED? And it’s great that the information available is not only that which is fit to print, or that fits, but even though more people know more things they’re often wrong.

Spotify is the number one source of digital revenue in Scandinavia, a paragon of illegal downloading in case you’ve never heard of the Pirate Bay. It’s number two in Europe. Countries with Spotify had an increase of 43% in digital revenue, compared with 9.3% in those without it.

But Spotify’s the problem because some Website published a sexy graph with no context a year and a half ago and those who just heard of the streaming giant are still passing this info around, with the truth trailing behind.

The truth is piracy dwarfs legal acquisition. And despite what the RIAA says, it’s still burgeoning. Suing didn’t solve the problem. It’s about a viable legal alternative. Spotify is such.

But what’s even more flabbergasting is that Spotify is not a new concept. Although it sports an interface the public is inured to, having employed the look and feel of iTunes, the basic model has been around for nearly a decade, with Rhapsody then the legal Napster and now MOG, Rdio and…

In other words, despite all the hot air that no one wanted a subscription service, that no one wanted rental, most people had never experienced such and didn’t know how great it was.

Yes, the genius of Spotify is the marketing. Allowing a free trial.

Funny how a business built on dope can’t understand this. Imagine if no one ever got to try marijuana for free, how big would the market be?

So streaming is the future and Spotify puts a dent in piracy.

But we’ve still got Luddites lamenting the passage of the physical media/album model. Yup, that’s right. Apple’s on the verge of eliminating the disc, and those in the music industry are still crying about a half century old model disappearing. If the sixties were so great, how’d you like to drive a Plymouth Satellite? Cars got better and so did music delivery systems.

Spotify doesn’t mean you can’t buy the track. But you’re gonna find out no one wants to. It makes no sense. Look around at all those CDs in your house, losing value as I write this. When was the last time you played one? Oh now my inbox is gonna fill up with people who refuse to use a smartphone, decry the iPad and just can’t wait for liner notes to return. You’re a market, but like the one for vinyl, it’s extremely tiny. That’s how the music business got in trouble, appealing to dinosaurs, like the now-troubled Best Buy. And isn’t it funny that Wal-Mart closed up its MP3 shop. Yup, the Arkansas company notorious for driving down costs, screwing manufacturers in the process, lost out to a tech company with retail stores grossing the highest per square footage amount of any establishment and they don’t even sell music in the physical store, only in the virtual world. Isn’t it funny that Apple is the number one valued company in America and Wal-Mart’s stock is struggling.

It’s music. How we hear it is secondary to what we hear. And although I agree that a higher quality digital file would be better, the problem is with Washington, D.C. and the cable and wireless companies. Yup, South Korea trumps us in broadband speed, we’re so busy cutting expenses that we can’t even invest in infrastructure that pays dividends. There’s no YouTube without broadband and there’s no high quality files without ultra-fast broadband, but it ain’t coming fast.

Why own if you’ve got everything at your fingertips?

To lambaste Spotify is to believe we should live in a world where overpriced CDs with one good track are the only way to consume music. Turns out people didn’t like that model, and once they got a chance they abandoned it. And now they’re abandoning ownership for streaming. But it’s not only music, it’s movies too. Ever heard of a company called Netflix?

And as backward as the record companies are, the artists are even worse. So ignorant, dreaming of future stardom that will never come or daydreaming about the good old days, they’re completely uninformed regarding reality.

1. No one knows how much money people will make in the future for making music. But that’s not a reason to prop up the past model. That’s like making it illegal to innovate, like having to replicate Dr. Luke’s compositions over and over again. Wait, that’s what’s happening! And you’re pissed your music can’t be heard! Don’t you get it, the future is about venturing into the unknown. Record labels won’t do it, radio won’t do it. You know who does it? MTV, which doesn’t even call itself "Music Television" anymore. That old MTV with wall to wall videos? If it existed today, it’d be bankrupt, killed by free distribution online. MTV changed, can you?

2. With streaming, income is pursuant to plays. If someone plays your record forever, you’ll continue to get paid. Not so in the old days. People bought it and that was the last money you ever saw.

3. The barrier to access being lowered is a good thing. In the old days, if you weren’t on the radio, your record was a stiff. Now, people can hear everything for free. The old system is avoided. This works for you, don’t you get it? You’re going directly to fan. And if people don’t like your music, tough noogies.

4. Stop bitching about wireless bandwidth costs. Playlists sync on all these streaming services. In case you can’t understand that, if you’ve got a subscription, your playlists live on your mobile handset just like they do with an iPod, there’s no streaming bandwidth involved. And it’s even better! With Spotify you don’t get mobile unless you pay! Which drives subscriptions. And if you don’t know mobile’s the future you still think desktop computers outsell laptops and that both aren’t threatened by the iPad.

5. It took us a decade to get to here. How much longer do you want to prevent the future? So long that music is entirely free forever more? To the point that no one ever pays? History is littered with devastated business models. Either you adapt or die. IBM did and survived. Microsoft is trying and not doing so well. Smith-Corona is unknown to most readers of this screed.

Do I wish Spotify paid more?

OF COURSE!

But that’s like saying everyone will buy a Mercedes-Benz, especially when cars are free, which is what we’ve got in the music world.

Do I wish the majors didn’t own a slice of Spotify?

OF COURSE!

But without this model, it wouldn’t exist.

Do I believe that all development stops and Spotify wins for all time?

Google+ threatens Facebook which killed MySpace. Innovate or die.

Do I believe you’re entitled to get rich for making music?

No, I do not. If I had my druthers, more of you would give up and it’d be easier to separate the wheat from the chaff. But just like posting online, just like that Information is Beautiful graphic, anyone can distribute their music online. Meaning the real money comes to he who can extricate the winners from the losers and serve them to the hungry public. This person is going to make all the money, just like MTV did in the last century. And it won’t be based on algorithms and it’ll look simple after the fact, you’ll say you could have created it, but you’d rather bitch than get your hands dirty.

Listen to me. The ability to hear all of recorded music for a low price is a good thing. It enriches the lives of listeners and benefits creators if they’d just shut up and give it a chance.

We’re gonna have new superstars. Not because the system creates them, but because the public demands them. We need rallying points, we need social icons.

And those who fulfill this role will be so rich, your jaw will drop.

Wanna win?

Then record this music. Which appeals to more than your mother and musos. And just like the Beatles, it will not be lowest common denominator. It will be great.

And most music is not.

Spotify is just a distribution scheme. Just a tool, like a computer.

If you’re bitching about the computer, wishing we’d all go back to paper and ink, I feel sorry for you, life today must be very hard.

People want access.

He who grants access for a low fee, making tons of revenue by charging everyone a little, the cell phone model, will win in the future.

WE’RE FINALLY PLAYING THIS GAME IN MUSIC AND YOU WANT TO KILL IT?